PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)

"We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives."

An elderly man, still mourning the recent passing of his late wife, is killed in a car accident.  Mourners leaving his funeral find the mutilated corpses of two graveyard workers.  The police are called and soon even more bodies start to pile up.  At the same time, two commercial airplane pilots report seeing an unidentified flying object, but the government covers it up.  These two events might not seem related, but they are!  You see, advanced extraterrestrials have been watching Earth for a very long time.  As we became more and more advanced.  Inventing the atom bomb, then the hydrogen bomb, but now...humans are on the verge of inventing the Solaranite bomb which will explode sunlight itself and, of course, the Universe!  The aliens have tried multiple times (I'm guessing 8?) to contact us, but The Man always covers it up, so they've moved on to Plan 9: zombies!

The most surprising thing that first time viewers will discover about PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE is it's not that bad of a film!  It's honestly just low budget and rough around the edges.  The story itself is entertaining and funny, the pace is good and the acting...well, the acting is pretty stiff, but it's still enjoyable.  The lieutenant's pistol handling skills alone are worth the price of admission!   Yeah, the sets look cheap, but the stuff like the microphone shadows and edges of props being visible is because the film was shot for the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but all of the home video releases (as of 4/2020) have been in 1.33:1.  So, the viewer ends up seeing things that were not meant to be seen.

As it is though, I still love P9FOS.  It's such a weird movie and it's 100% Ed Wood.  Nobody else in the Universe could have made PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.  That should at least stand for something.  Ed only made a handful of good films, but goddamn, are they unique and charming.  And I think that is the best way to describe PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE: charming.

Required viewing for fans of "bad movies".  

Not part of the review, but I would absolutely love to see a 100% serious retelling of Ed's original Plan 9 story idea.  I'm talking serious like ARRIVAL or something like that.  I honestly think, in the correct hands, this story could be straight up awesome!!!

GLEN OR GLENDA (1953)

"Pull the string!"

Padded with 14 minutes of random stock footage and numerous scenes of Bela Lugosi talking about god only knows what, GLEN OR GLENDA is the so-awful-it's-awesome story of a Police Inspector who, after investigating the suicide of a cross-dresser (who killed himself while wearing women's clothing), goes to a doctor who tells him two different stories.  The first is about a straight guy who likes to wear women's clothing and the second is about a dude who has a sex change operation to be a woman.

That sounds pretty straight-forward, but what makes GLEN OR GLENDA such a legendary film is Ed Wood Jr.  The guy might not have had much talent, as far as filmmaking goes, but his passion and honesty is abundantly clear.  That's not saying GLEN OR GLENDA is a good movie...cause it's not, but it is unique.

Fake-looking sets, amazingly bad dialogue, less than stellar acting, a 13-minute dream-like montage sequence right in the middle of the movie that features everything from Satan to bondage, camera shadow, Glen literally throwing a cigarette inside a store (at 27:20), quick pace, tons of surreal moments, bison running, a woman pronouncing automobiles as "ought-tow-me-bills", the narrator claiming that 7 out of 10 men are bald because of tight-fitting hats.

There is so much going on in the weird little film that one viewing just isn't going to cover it.  You're gonna have to watch it at least 3 or 4 times.  Recommended for fans of bad movies.